Lance WhitneyHow to Record Calls on Your Android PhoneHave an important phone call coming up and want to save it to reference later? You can record both incoming and outgoing calls on your Android phone with the right app.

Want to record phone calls on your Android phone? Android doesn't come with a built-in voice recorder, but there are other options. You could use an external recorder, but you're better off with an application that records directly from your phone. You can use Google Voice, although that service limits you to recording incoming calls. Several third-party apps, however, will allow you to record all phone calls—incoming and outgoing calls—if you know the right tricks.

First, let's discuss the elephant in the room, namely is it legal to record a phone call, especially if you don't ask the other person for permission? The answer to that question depends on where you live. US federal and most state laws allow phone recording if just one party (and yes, that can be you) gives it the okay. Some states, however, require both parties to give permission to be recorded. Other countries have their own laws, of course. To fully cover yourself legally, ask the other person for permission before recording the call.

Okay, now let's check out some apps for recording your Android phone conversations.

Google Voice

With Google Voice, you choose a dedicated phone number through which incoming calls are routed to your mobile phone. After you set up your phone number and your Google Voice account, tap on the app's hamburger icon () in the upper-left corner. Tap the Settings command. Swipe down the screen and turn on the “Incoming call options" to enable call recording. Again, the limitation here is that you can record only incoming calls.

After you answer a call, press the number 4 on the keypad to record the conversation. A message announces that the call is being recorded, so be sure to get the other person's permission beforehand. To stop the recording, press 4 on the keypad again. The recording is saved to your inbox, where you can listen to it or download it to your computer.

TapeACall

TapeACall from TelTech Systems records incoming or outgoing calls of any length. You can then listen to the recordings on your phone, upload them to a cloud storage service, and share them via email or social media. But the recording steps can be tricky until you get the hang of them.

To record an outgoing call, open the TapeACall app and tap the Record button. The phone number for the special recording line appears on the screen. Tap Call to call that number to kick off the recording. Tap the Add Call button to call who you want to talk to. When your call is answered, tap the Merge button to initiate a three-way call with the other person and the recording line.

For an incoming call, press the Record button to start the recording. Again, the app prompts you to dial the recording line. Call that number and tap the Merge button to merge the calls.

The app relies on three-way calling, which is supported by the four major US carriers—Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. The free version of TapeACall plays only the first 60 seconds of your recording. For $9.99, the full version removes that limitation and unlocks a host of other features.

Call Recorder

Call Recorder from Green Apple Studio is simple to use as it can automatically record your phone calls. Open the app to check it out. The home screen offers four different categories for storing your call recordings—All, Outgoing, Incoming, and Important. Tap on the Settings icon. Here, you can enable or disable Call Recorder to automatically record all calls, outgoing calls, or incoming calls. You can exclude specific phone numbers from recording, tell the app to prompt for a PIN when you open it, and change the file type for the audio recording.

To record an outgoing call, simply call the other party as you normally would. For an incoming call, you don't have to do anything, assuming you set the app to automatically record. After the call is completed, open Call Recorder. In the All section, you'll see an entry for your phone calls. Here is where you can choose a specific recording for playback. You can also pause, go forward, go back, or slide the scrubber button to move throughout the recording. Calls can then be tagged as important, deleted, or shared via email or social media.

At the home screen you can tap on the three-dot icon () to delete a call, share it, view details on it, add it to the excluded section, or call the number. The free version of Call Recorder saddles you with ads. To escape them, you'll have to shell out $3.99 for the pro edition.

Smart Call Recorder

Smart Call Recorder from Neavo is another app that can automatically record incoming and outgoing calls. To get started, launch the app. Tap on the hamburger icon () and select Settings. Here, you can enable or disable a switch that turns the recording on and off, opt to display notifications of a call recording, and select a recording source such as speaker mic or regular mic.

When you receive or make a call, the app automatically kicks in to start the recording. When the call is done, open the app. You'll see the call listed under Incoming or Outgoing. Tap on the recording to play it, delete it, turn call recording on or off, or share the recording. Tap Play recording, and you can listen to the entire audio. Tap Share recording, and you can share the audio file via email or social media. Smart Call Recorder is free. A pro or premium version is supposedly required to unlock certain features, but I was able to access all the features with the free edition.

How to Record Calls on an iPhone

About the Author

Surviving a long and varied career in publishing, advertising, and IT, Lance Whitney now wears a few different technology hats. By day, he's a journalist, software trainer, and sometime Web developer. By night, he's asleep. These days, he writes news stories, columns, and reviews for CNET and other technology sites and publications. He's written tw... See Full Bio

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.